Amazon is reportedly planning a massive wave of layoffs in its corporate and technology division, which would be the largest cuts in the company’s history.
The New York Times reports the retailer will lay off approximately 10,000 workers, largely in its devices organization. That’s the unit that makes the Echo (and voice assistant Alexa), Kindle, and other consumer products.
Other cuts will come in its retail division and human resources, the Times further reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. All totaled, the company employs more than 1.5 million people, mostly hourly workers.
The timing of the cuts, just as the holiday shopping season gets underway, is unusual and shows growing economic fears among big tech companies.
Amazon would also just be the latest FANG stock to reduce its workforce. Meta last week laid off 13% of its staff, cutting roughly 11,000 positions. Netflix, in May and June, cut 450 jobs, making up roughly 4% of its workforce. And Google has shut down divisions, including Hangouts and Stadia, but has not announced mass layoffs to date.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, laid off much of Twitter’s workforce earlier this month (reportedly half), following his $44 billion purchase of the social media site.
Amazon has struggled, by its standards, after surging during the pandemic, as the e-commerce boom has fallen back to earth, but Amazon's hiring patterns had kept soaring until recently. Previous to these reported cuts, the company had announced a hiring freeze and shut down its telehealth service and closed or abandoned dozens of warehouses as well as its retail book locations.
Year to date, the company’s stock is down 42%.
